Stoweflake Hot Air Balloon Festival

Birding at Dean Shield's House

This morning I joined the Ecology professors and some students from their class for a bird walk at Dean Shield's home. He and his wife have a gorgeous home in Tunbridge, about 20 minutes from the law school. Opportunities like this are what set VLS apart from your average law school. It was a gorgeous morning, and we got a great species list for the day, adding some great birds like green heron, belted kingfisher, a calling great-crested flycatcher, and chimney swifts.

The misty fog burned off pretty quickly

The pretty flowers are called Bladder Campion - Thanks for the ID Peter! 

Gorgeous posing cedar waxwing

Cedar waxwing take 2

Do you see the Baltimore Oriole's hanging basket nest hidden in the branches?

A Very Pertinent Post from a Reader:

Anonymous said...

I can't figure out how to comment onthe 350 badge. I would NEVER post this badge because it features bird killing windmills. I refuse to give any more money to the Sierra Club because they use the figure of this windmill. There are other windmills which do not kill birds. At what cost do we blindly continue our over populated path.

10:12 PM

 Leigh said...

Hi, thanks for sharing. I have huge problems with wind power for precisely that reason. I think many people aren't even aware of how much of an impact wind power projects have on birds. They do kill birds predominately because they're placed on the flight path of migration routes, where wind funnels through passes, etc - places birds travel through for the same reason. There needs to be more emphasis placed on putting wind power projects in place that are designed to protect against those casualties.
Glass has an incredible impact on birds as well though, millions of birds are killed every year for hitting windows during migration, both of houses, and of tall office buildings. At present, very little is being done to make people aware of this deadly effect, and while there are some people working to develop glass that birds can "see" while still being see-through for humans, not nearly enough is being done to market it at a large scale. There are many many problems out there facing birds, wind energy is just one of them, and frankly, I see wind energy as the lesser of two evils because at least it's working to wean us off the use of fossil fuels, which kill many birds as well - the Gulf spill is only one example.

Anyone else have valuable thoughts, comments, information to share? 

P.S. - I know this is a passionate issue for many people, myself included, but please try to restrain yourself from directed anger or ranting, and instead share insights and try to foster a valuable conversation on the issues.

Low-Impact Development Can Have a Huge Impact on Run-Off

Many people don't realize how much runoff from urban and suburban areas impact the water quality of our rivers, streams, lakes, and oceans. Here's a link to EPA's site on how low-impact development, and green infrastructure improvements can vastly decrease the impact that non-point sources have on pollution.

Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

The disaster in the Gulf will have lasting effects on the environment for many years to come. Here is a link to the Official Response site on the Gulf clean-up. The images of oiled birds and turtles have me tossing and turning every night, and new and disturbing aspects of the spill are brought to light daily. Below is a link to a YouTube video made by a birder in the Gulf, which shows some of the unintended negative effects of the response on sensitive species. I think it highlights just how unprepared BP and the agencies were to handle a disaster of this magnitude.

There is an effort to raise awareness and funding for the continued recovery effort. It's important that this be done because the general public has a woefully short attention span for disasters - think Katrina and Haiti. This jeweler has a Gulf collection - it's my understanding that some of the proceeds go towards the clean-up effort.

If It Was My Home - Visualizing the BP Oil Spill

This link helps to give you a visual understanding of the size of area the spill encompasses. Pretty frightening in these terms.

Quechee Gorge: Vermont's Grand Canyon

Hiking Mt. Tom with Victor

Mt. Tom is a small peak above Woodstock, VT, very similar to Kent's Ledge, which I've hiked on several occasions. It was a quick, fairly easy hike, at least until the last stretch where it was very steep. The weather was gorgeous, cool, breezy, and sunny out, mid 70s. Perfect day for a hike!

Birding With Peter and Merril

Right before I left VT to visit home in Cali, I went on a very relaxed bird walk with Peter and his girlfriend Merrill. We just walked around the area surrounding his house (really nice vegetation along a brook). We had red-eyed and blue-headed vireos, a veery, a least flycatcher calling and ovenbirds singing. I was buzzed by a ruby-throated humming bird, and of course chickadees followed us wherever we went.

 Because it was mid-afternoon, and ridiculously windy, warblers were a wash, but it was still nice to get out and hike around a bit. They had been out turkey hunting at the crack of dawn, and had some dinner to show for it! Personally, I think I'll stick to watching birds ;)

Welcome to South Royalton

Welcome to South Royalton

Happy Earth Day!

Celebrate the planet by taking steps to make it a healthier place to live. Walk or bike to work or to the store, buy local and organic, non-GMO products, use re-useable shopping bags, use earth and human-friendly products like Seventh Generation, and most of all, get outside and enjoy the gorgeous spring weather! It's not about absolutes - nobody can do all of it, all the time - but it is about doing everything you can realistically to make steps toward a healthier planet and body.

In honor of the day, here's a great article showing how environmental education is succeeding in some places.

Spring Has Sprung!

Its beginning to feel a lot like spring around here. The robins are out in abundance, eastern phoebes are calling out raspy, "phee-bee, phee-bee!" from the tree tops, and the dawn chorus greets me each morning as I wake. We had some gorgeous weather this past weekend, but it's supposed to rain this week.
Fiddleheads!

Hopefully it will clear up soon, and I can get out for a hike, or maybe even an overnight trip??

A cautionary tale though, friends warned me not to put my winter gear away yet, mother nature has been known to surprise Vermont with an April snowstorm in the past. Wouldn't that be fun?

Weather Changes Affect Species on All Continents

Northern New England may be having a relatively mild winter, but back in the motherland, things haven't been so easy. New reports coming in indicate that small birds are not weathering the particularly harsh winter very well. Click here to link to the article.

Monarchs in North America are facing a similar fate due to bad weather. Here's a link to the article detailing their rough winter.

March Hike up Kent's Ledge

It was an overcast, blustery morning, Peter and I had decided to hike Kent's Ledge. It was extremely peaceful and calm on the way up, very few birds beyond a brown creeper, some juncos, and a small flock of chickadees calling.

When we reached the ledge itself, the wind was howling, which kept us from lingering there too long. We began the trek back down, taking a different route than we hiked up, just for variety. Pileated woodpeckers called from the trees ahead, but otherwise, it stayed quiet. As we were only a few minutes from the end of the hike, I finally met my icy match, doing the stereotypical cartoon banana peel slip. My legs went straight out from under me, and I landed flat on my back. Oooof. Ouch.

After the shock wore off, I was sore, and my ego felt a bruise forming, but otherwise I was fine. We headed to the car to get me home where I could nurse my wounds in peace. So much for mountain woman...

Consolation prize was getting great looks at a downy woodpecker climbing the tree outside my window. Maybe mother nature felt sorry for me.